Posted on October 7, 2018

Tennessee GOP Rep. Lamar Alexander on Sunday lamented the blow to public confidence inflicted by the “inquisition” that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh went through during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.

In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Alexander said though Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford was “credible” during her testimony, “you have to be fair about it, in a very difficult case” and also consider the lack of corroboration and extensive FBI background checks.

“It would be hard to have public confidence if you go through an inquisition like he did, arranged by the Democrats,” Alexander said. “If you go down and read six FBI investigations of him over 25 years, and see not just the bad things that were not said about him but the remarkably good things that were said about him, you would be very glad he would be on the Supreme Court.”

“If you had a group of people deliberately trying to destroy your reputation with accusations you know aren't true and every rumor about you is the most awful kind of accusation, you're not going to sit there calmly and take that,” he said.

“You will defend yourself against people deliberately trying to damage and destroy you. That's what he did. I think the fact he did that is the reason he's on the Court. I think if he had sat there and taken it the people would have been very suspicious….If he's under assault, he fights back.”